Martin Luther and the Enduring Word of God

Robert Kolb

Description

A World-Class Scholar on Luther's Use of ScriptureThe Reformation revolutionized church life through its new appreciation for God's presence working through the Bible. Coinciding with the five hundredth anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation, this volume explains how Luther's approach to the Bible drew his colleagues and contemporary followers into a Scripture-centered practice of theology and pastoral leadership. World-class scholar Robert Kolb examines the entire school of interpretation launched by Luther, showing how Luther's students continued the study and spread of God's Word in subsequent generations. Filled with fresh insights and cutting-edge research, this major statement provides historical grounding for contemporary debates about the Bible.

Sujets

• Lettres et linguistique
• History of religions
• Christianity

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 15 novembre 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781493404308
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
© 2016 by Robert Kolb
Published by Baker Academic
a division of Baker Publishing Group
PO Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516–6287
www.bakeracademic.com
Ebook edition created 2016
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4934-0430-8
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
I am grateful for permission to reproduce sections of previously published materials (listed below) in the following chapters:
Chapter 3: “Nowhere More Present and Active T han in the Holy Letters: Luther’s Understanding of God’s Presence in Scripture.” Lutheran Theological Journal 49 (2015): 4–17.
Chapter 11: “Did Luther’s Students Hide the Hidden God? Deus Absconditus among Luther’s First Followers.” In Churrasco: A Theological Feast in Honor of Vítor Westhelle , edited by Mary Philip, John Arthur Nunes, and Charles M. Collier, 1–16. Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2013; and “The ‘Three Kingdoms’ of Simon Musaeus: A Wittenberg Student Processes Luther’s Terminology.” In Collaboration, Conflict, and Continuity in the Reformation: Essays in Honour of James M. Estes on His Eightieth Birthday , edited by Konrad Eisenbichler, 297–321. Toronto: Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2014.
Chapters 11, 13, and 14: “Bibelauslegung in der Via Wittenbergensis: Die Volkshermeneutik von Johann Mathesius als Vertreter von Luthers Homiletik.” Lutherische Theologie und Kirche 33 (2009): 93–110.
Chapters 12 and 13: “Georg Major as Preacher.” In Georg Major (1502–1574): Ein Theologe der Wittenberger Reformation , edited by Irene Dingel and Günther Wartenberg, 93–121. Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2005; and “Paul Eber as Preacher.” In Paul Eber (1511–1569): Humanist und Theologe der zweiten Generation der Wittenberger Reformation , edited by Daniel Gehrt and Volker Leppin, 375–400. Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2014.
Chapter 13: “Jakob Andreae’s Preaching in the Public Arena (Augsburg 1559).” LQ 29 (2015): 10–32.
Contents
Cover i
Title Page iii
Copyright Page iv
Abbreviations vii
Introduction: God’s Word Endures Forever: The Wittenberg School of Exegesis 1
1. The Bible in the World of Luther’s Childhood and Youth 17
2. In the Beginning God Said: Luther’s Understanding of the Word of God 35
3. Nowhere More Present Than in Scripture: Luther’s Perception of What the Bible Is 75
4. Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth: Luther’s Hermeneutical Framework 98
5. Search the Scriptures: Luther as Professor 132
6. Faith Comes by Hearing: Luther the Preacher 174
7. Teaching All Nations: Luther as Translator 209
8. Instruction in Sound Teaching: The Wittenberg Curriculum, the Wittenberg Commentary, the Wittenberg Colleagues 239
9. Searching the Scriptures the Wittenberg Way: Sixteenth-Century Tools for Study of the Bible 274
10. Biographical Interlude: The Later Wittenberg Commentators 302
11. Formulas for Speaking Circumspectly and Avoiding Offense: Hermeneutics for Exegesis and Preaching among Luther’s Students 311
12. Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth: The Late Reformation Wittenberg Commentaries 347
13. In Season, Out of Season: The Forms and Methods of Late Reformation Preaching in the Wittenberg Circle 395
14. With a Firm Grasp of the Word: The Message of Late Reformation Proclamation 435
The Enduring Word of God: Concluding Reflection 467
Bibliography 470
Subject Index 506
Scripture Index 510
Author Index 515
Back Cover 519
Abbreviations AP Auctoritas Patrum: Neue Beiträge zur Rezeption der Kirchenväter im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert [New contributions on the reception of the church fathers in the 15th and 16th centuries]. Edited by Leif Grane, Alfred Schindler, and Markus Wriedt. 2 vols. Mainz: Zabern, 1993–98 ARG Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte BC The Book of Concord . Edited by Robert Kolb and Timothy J. Wengert. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2000 BSELK Die Bekenntnisschriften der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche . Edited by Irene Dingel. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2014 BSELK: QuM2 Die Bekenntnisschriften der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche : Quellen und Materialien . Band 2, Die Konkordienformel . Edited by Irene Dingel. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2014 CP The Sermons of Martin Luther [the Church Postil]. Edited and translated by John Nicholas Lenker. 1905. Reprint, Grand Rapids: Baker, 1983 CR Philipp Melanchthon. Corpus Reformatorum: Philippi Melanthonis Opera quae supersunt omnia . Edited by C. G. Bretschneider and H. E. Bindweil. Halle and Braunschweig: Schwetschke, 1834–60 EA 2 Dr. Martin Luther’s sämmtliche Werke . Erlangen Ausgabe. 2nd ed. Frankfurt am Main and Erlangen: Heyder & Zimmer, 1862–85 LEC Lutheran Ecclesiastical Culture, 1550–1675 . Edited by Robert Kolb. Leiden: Brill, 2008 LuJ Lutherjahrbuch LQ Lutheran Quarterly LW Luther’s Works. Philadelphia: Fortress; St. Louis: Concordia, 1958–86, 2008– MBWR/MBWT Melanchthons Briefwechsel . Edited by Heinz Scheible. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog, 1977–. R = Register vols., T = Text vols. MSA Melanchthons Werke in Auswahl [Studien-Ausgabe]. Edited by Robert Stupperich. 6 vols. Gütersloh: Bertelsmann, 1955 OHMLT The Oxford Handbook of Martin Luther’s Theology . Edited by Robert Kolb, Irene Dingel, and Lubomir Batka. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014 PG Patrologia Graeca. Patrologiae Cursus Completus : Series Graeca. Edited by J. P. Migne. 162 vols. Paris: Petit-Montroye, 1857–66 PL Patrologia Latina. Patrologiae Cursus Completus : Series Latina. Edited by J. P. Migne. 217 vols. Paris & Turnhout: Gamer Fratres, 1844–64 Sehling, EKO Emil Sehling et al., eds. Die evangelischen Kirchenordnungen des XVI. Jahrhunderts . Leipzig; Reisland; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1902– SCJ Sixteenth Century Journal TRE Theologische Realenzyklopädie . Edited by Gerhard Krause and Gerhard Müller. Berlin: de Gruyter, 1977–2004 VD 16 Verzeichnis der im deutschen Sprachbereich erschienenen Drucke des 16. Jahrhunderts [Bibliography of books printed in the German-speaking countries of the sixteenth century] is a project to make a retrospective German national bibliography for the sixteenth century. WA D. Martin Luthers Werke [Weimar Ausgabe]. Weimar: Böhlau, 1883–1993. [Outlined: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weimar_edition_of_Martin_Luther’s_works] WA BR Briefwechsel [Correspondence]. 18 vols. WA DB Die deutsche Bibel [The German Bible]. 15 vols. WA TR Tischreden [Table Talk]. 6 vols.
Introduction
God’s Word Endures Forever: The Wittenberg School of Exegesis
The maxim “God’s Word remains forever” not only adorned the title page of Martin Luther’s translation of the Bible, published in 1534. It also served as the motto of the Smalcald League, the alliance of Evangelical princes and municipalities formed in 1531. This assertion had by that time become the foundation of a new worldview, a new definition of what it means to be Christian, formulated by Luther and his colleagues at the University of Wittenberg.
Luther’s Redefinition of What It Means to Be Christian
In 1529 Martin Luther complained of “the whole swarm of clerics in our time who stand day after day in the church, sing and ring bells, but without keeping a single day holy because they neither preach nor practice God’s Word but rather teach and live contrary to it.” 1 This comment on the command to keep the Sabbath holy, as he paraphrased it in his catechisms, “You are to hallow the day of rest,” reflects his fundamental change in the characterization of the nature of the Christian’s faith and life.
Luther had grown up in a world still marked by pagan religious rhythms and forms, which underlay the sometimes quite thin veneer, sometimes quite substantial force, of the biblical message. During the course of the millennium after the establishment of Christianity as the religion of the Roman Empire, Christianity came to practically all parts of both that empire and the Germanic and Slavic populations at and beyond its borders. Mass conversions of native populations took place without sufficient personnel for the proper inculcation of that message. As a result, the religious shape of late medieval German life owed much to Holy Scripture and the Christian tradition, but its structure and impetus retained much from the pagan patterns on which the name Christian had been imposed. Those patterns nourished the perception that human relationship with the divine—with the powers that control daily life, with God—takes shape when human beings approach the Divine with their own efforts and achievements, particularly in the performance of sacred works, of rituals. 2
The late Middle Ages witnessed a multiplication of pious ritual practices and the proliferation of opportunities for more and more of the population to exercise devotion through them. Rising disposable income contributed to the increase and intensity of some of these practices, as did the efforts of theologians and local clergy to ease strict standards that required strenuous devotion if they were to accomplish any good at all. 3 A restlessness that sought new answers to life’s pressing questions and a new framework for thinking about divine and human reality infused conversation and action with expectations of something new. 4
In the midst of this explosion of pious practice, Martin Luther gradually came to the conviction that this form and dynamic for human life did not promote but rather perverted genui